Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 376: State of the Massenomics Union

Episode Date: June 19, 2023

Is Massenomics operating at a loss or a surplus? Do we actually sell and shirts and shorts? Is the podcast growing or shrinking? Do either of us still even lift? We skipped a guest this week, and decided to dive deep into the behind the scenes world of Massenomics. Juggernaut AI: juggernautai.app and use code MASSENOMICS to save 10% The Strength Co: https://store.thestrength.co/ BearFoot Shoes: https://bearfoot.store/ and use code MASSENOMICS to save 10% Swiss Link: https://www.swisslink.com and use code MASS to save 15% Spud Inc: https://www.spud-inc-straps.com/ Texas Power Bars: https://www.texaspowerbars.com/

You know, thanks for what you do with your podcasts and all the rest. You're doing a great job. Hope everybody keeps tuning in. You get a lot of good info, a lot of insights, understandings on how to get strong, how to stay strong, how to use your strength. You do a great job, dude. You make things better than they are in real life, I think.

If you don't follow Massanomics, y'all do it. Social media, website, everything. Massanomics! Massanomics! Howdydy everyone. We're here for episode 376 of the Massonomics podcast. We make things better than they are in real life. And this week's episode is going to be no exception to that. I can't wait to make things better than they are in real life. That's kind of what I live for. My name is Tanner. And my name is Tommy. That's what I say first thing when I wake up every morning.

I'm going to make things better than they are in real life. That's exactly right. It's like the Matrix. We kind of live in the Matrix. It's better than real life over here. When you're in Masonomics, just every day is the Matrix. God, Tommy, it seems like I haven't seen you for so long. When was the last time we recorded an episode even?

Weeks, months ago. I don't know. They all blur together. Who knows? I actually should have changed shirts now that I think about it. Well, when you have a good thing going, though, I mess it up, right? I don't know where I would find a Masonomics shirt, though. Yeah, I mean, you have to move all those drink spotters.

That'd be the problem. Yes. This is a very special episode of the Massonomics Podcast. We're going to get to what we're going to cover here. But first, what I wanted to tell everyone is make sure to head over to Juggernaut AI. Go over to the web browser, whatever web browser you use, whether it's Ask Jeeves or... Is Ask Jeeves isn't a web browser, though, is it? That was just a search engine. Yeah, definitely not a web browser you use whether it's ask jeeves or is is ask jeeves isn't a web browser though is that that was just a search engine uh yeah yeah definitely not a web browser yeah that's yeah

you could you could ask jeeves though um to get you there ask jeeves is that still an active search engine i just had to check it's ask.com now okay and people are using that apparently it exists probably not but how why does it exist like nobody's using it why does it exist that's a great question i'm not sure that's the internet you know just things just exist yeah that's true that's true anyways use whatever search engine whatever web browser i just want you to go to the website. It's juggernautai.app. That's where you can get signed up for the app. It is the training app that we've been using for many months over here and realizing many gains and a lot of whole bunch of members. It's been the go-to training method of a lot of members of MassAmyx Gym now to be honest be honest and some of what i like about it is it's you know actively recording

all of your lifts that you're performing whether it's the main lifts which a lot of people normally times people are tracking those anyways but we're still tracking like the accessory lifts you're seeing what you're doing in there and able to actually try and progress those over time also whereas instead of just going and doing 30 pound bicep curls for the exact same number of sets and reps every week for the rest of your life. It's called consistency. That's true, too. You can track that and notice, well, hey, it actually that's that's easy now. Maybe I need to make this a little bit harder.

That's one example of something I like on the app. The other thing, it's just it's principle based. So, you know, as you're doing. There's logic behind it. I like that I can understand the logic behind it and that there is logic behind it. That seems like it should be table stakes but in some programming that's not there

so that would be what I like but the biggest thing is the discount code MASSANOMICS. It'll save you 10% for the lifetime of the membership when you get signed up. Make sure you use discount code MASSANOMICS. Thank you, Juggernaut AI. And today's episode is also brought to you by Barefoot Shoes. Most shoes harm your mobility by over-restricting your foot's natural movement. Barefoot shoes are designed with minimal restrictions so your feet can move the way they're supposed to. Move with more strength and confidence in every step. Barefoot Shoes was founded by Chris Duffin, who attributes proper foot biomechanics

as foundational to his success in squatting and deadlifting over 1,000 pounds for reps. He helped create the company to provide a minimalist shoe that can be worn for anything from deadlifts to walking your dog. Go to www.barefoot.shoes to check out the best minimalist shoes available. And while you're there, make sure to use code MASSANOMICS to save 10% on your next order. That's barefoot.shoes, code MASSANOMICS. Thank you, Barefoot.

Now, we mentioned that this is going to be a special episode. It's special for a number of reasons. Number one, it's a MASSANOMICS podcast episode. It's special for a number of reasons. Number one, it's a Massonomics podcast episode. There's only 376 of those out in the world, so it's special in that regard. There's only 52 of them that will happen this year. That's true. There's only like four or five that are going to go down this month.

That's it. You only get four or five chances in a month. Still in the continuation of our seven-year anniversary tour that we're on. We're only 24 episodes away from 400. We've got to figure out something fancy there. That's a big number. We're prepping that, of course. That's only a half a year away.

That's true. We'll be at 400 in no time. But why it's special also is we're not having a guest this episode and we're not taking a q a a lot of times when we don't have a guest we do a little q a we're not doing that either we're just going to kind of talk massonomic shop yeah one way i phrased it is it's like going to be the massonomic state of the union address it's like you're riding in the car with tanner and i on the way to the arnold you're getting the inside look at everything. Yeah, you're getting the peek behind the Mastodon speaker.

Except instead of it being a 22-hour conversation, you're going to get an abridged version here. Yeah. So it should be fun. I mean, if you've been listening to Mastodonomics, sometimes you might think, I wish they talked about Mastodonomics a little more frequently, and we're going to do that some of this episode.

You asked Jeeves, and now we're answering to do that some of this episode uh you asked james and now we're answering yes yes i did there was a couple other topics in here that we've got too do we want to talk on any of those first or should we talk more massonomic stuff well that's all i think that's all garbage so we can i shouldn't say garbage but that's all extra we can come to that later okay we do have a sack segment we need to get to in this episode. Do we want to do that first? Maybe. Maybe warm me up with a sack, yeah.

Okay. I'll get my sack. I've been warming my sack over here. Good. You're going to like this. You don't know what's in my sack. I don't. This is a surprise for you.

We got a little present in the mail from another podcast, actually. This came to us from the C-Team podcast. All right. And let's see i haven't looked closely at what we got for sizing here but i believe there's a shirt for me and a shirt for you here's a 2x and uh this one's probably probably an xl then and like i said this is from the c team podcast out a bunch of Chicago guys over there. Oh, I can't wait to see this. I can't wait to see this. And I hope that you can see the full imprint here on that.

Oh, yes. I was hoping it was going to be that shirt. I love it. Yes, I'm very excited for that. So what could you explain it to people that are listening? So it's a black T-shirt with big white letters, and it says, Only Losers Live in the Past. And the O in losers, instead of being an O,

it's Huck Finn's head. Yes. That's good. So was this shirt, I hadn't seen it really before was this shirt for sale i don't know i just know that they were talking about it on the podcast on uh on let's get stupid they were talking about that was it a week or two ago he's like oh yeah i guess my my head looks pretty good and he's like yeah they should be paying me royalties or something like that okay i guess i didn't follow because i hadn't seen this yet at that point in

time yes i heard him talking about that. And then I saw a picture. Someone had it in their story. I just saw it a couple of days ago and I thought, Hey, that shirt looks pretty good. I saw big Keith. Was that?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that was pretty good. So yeah. So we're both owners of that one now. I'm excited for that one.

So thanks to the C team podcast for that one. That's pretty funny. Yeah. podcast for that one that's that's that's pretty funny yeah i like that it's funny i think the c-team podcast started as a recap show of the let's get stupid podcast but now i think they mostly just rag on the let's get stupid guys from what i've observed so i don't know yeah it's in the same universe you know yeah yeah it's in the greater let's get stupid universe uh which would well actually yeah it would the greater let's get stupid universe uh which would inc well actually yeah it would include the let's get stupid podcast the huck finn barbell podcast and the be better podcast and the c team podcast they have a whole podcast network over there now

i don't even know if they realize that they're not capitalizing you know they do have a podcast and you know if we thought about it harder there's probably some offshoots in there technically that we're not even aware of. Yeah, yeah. That's true. So pretty funny stuff there, actually. It's great. Okay, in the massonomics world, though, oh, boy, there's so much stuff we could talk about in the massonomics world

because there's a lot going on. You know, just some of what's going on is a big thing we're doing is preparing for the meat, of course, still. You just always say, how much work can go into preparing for a meat? Oh, boy. Even when you kind of really know what you're getting into, you can come up with unlimited things that you could be doing. That's kind of the thing, too,, we want it to be good, obviously.

So we want to kind of go the extra mile in some different ways. Yeah, and we are. Like we're doing a lot of things that I don't think, there's definitely bigger and better. Like this isn't the American Open or whatever, where they have jumbotron screens everywhere. Like we're not doing that, but we're trying to do all the extra little details

that look like, yeah, these guys care. They're putting money into this, thought into this, effort this effort into this like they're not just like here's the venue go left way it's okay have fun which i think anyone would be happy with that in this group but people put a lot of time and effort and money into coming to our meet and we want to you know show our appreciation for them yeah make it an experience for them and also for spectators too. Yeah. I think just like if I had to just pick one thing, there's a number of things, but I just think something particularly cool that we're working on this week

is just our concept for the programs that will be at the event. And it's not common, and I don't really know why. Like we're working on it right now. We're working on the details, but the initial idea is we're going to have like a 12-page booklet that's going to consist of a nice cover on it. It's going to have flight rosters.

It's probably going to have some massonomics info, some info about vendors. Some powerlifting info. We're going to have spectators there that aren't privy to powerlifting necessarily. Just a little bit of like, hey, this is what people are getting. This is what, this is what people are getting. This is what the competition is,

what they need to do here, what they're trying to do. Here's what those lights mean. You know, just the basics of, of, of sport to understand here. So like,

we're doing things like that. Trying to just put together things that showcase our sponsors in the correct way and let everyone know who the sponsors were. And I mean, there's just, those are like the most recent things. So that's why we're saying those, but you know, we had 10,000 other discussions about all the other stuff too. Right. And a lot of this is, you know, we've done strongman events before. So we get, you know, what goes into a lot of it. Now it's just pivoting that to be relevant to the powerlifting side of things. And like next year, you know, we will assume when we do the meet next year, a lot of this,

it's like, okay, we've done it once. Now it's going to be slightly more on autopilot, but it is just all, it's not just like, oh yeah, Tanner, you go do this thing better. Yeah. It's not like, oh yeah, Tanner, you just do your thing and I'll just type away on my computer and we're ready to go. It's like, no, there's like so many people that you're dependent on with this stuff. That's what makes it so tough. Cause there's just, everything revolves,

revolves around multiple vendors, multiple phone calls, multiple suppliers, multiple, just people that you are assuming are going to hold up their end of the deal to make it all work. And we got some, uh, part of what too, we've got some cool merchandise coming, of course, you know, as massonomics and as a dark what too we got some cool merchandise coming of course you know as massonomics and as at our meet we got some cool merchandise stuff that's coming out around it you know t-shirts being one obvious thing but then some other stuff that we're going to incorporate there and make available first to people that are at the meet and then maybe if there's anything beyond that we'll have stuff available for sale on the website but the meat is definitely consuming a lot of our time right now.

Yes. You know, that's what we're hot and heavy on right now. And then YouTube is something that we've focused on way more this year than ever before. We kind of talk about it every week, but that has become a bigger piece of the time puzzle to us than it ever has been before. become a bigger piece of the time puzzle to us than it ever has been before. It's so funny. Our conversations with YouTube, because there's some videos that it's just, there's some videos we've put a lot of,

I wouldn't say work. I mean, I use that term. I use that term loosely. We've put a lot of time into some videos and that time has been like just very minimal reward for it. And then we've also had videos where we've put somewhat minimal time into and they've been rewarded pretty well. And you know, we talk about this with Instagram. You never know what's going to hit. Uh, we're quickly learning with YouTube. You never know what's going to hit. And you can have a couple

that feels like, wow, if anything, we're just losing traction. And then you have one that goes good. And you're like, all right, maybe we're onto something. But I think one thing that we've been telling ourselves, and I know I've heard people say this, is if you're going to do YouTube, you just have to be consistent and give it like, you almost have to do it for a year straight and see what happens. And, you know, that's kind of where we're at right now is we remind ourselves that, like, okay, we just got to keep doing straight and see what happens. And you know, that's kind of where we're at right now is we remind ourselves that like, okay, we just got to keep doing stuff and see what happens because yeah, it's hard to do something for like, oh yeah, I did it for two months or I did it for three months. You know, we made 12 videos and it didn't work. It's like, well, you didn't give yourself an honest chance. A year is for sure giving ourselves an honest chance and that's going to be a lot of work

and more likely than not, it's going to be like, yeah, I did something. It never went crazy. But as of right now, it is fun. Like we are. It is fun.

It's definitely another channel. It's fun seeing the reactions from people. Another option or another way to engage with people. And we're seeing some things out of it too.

You know, like you can mark some things that like, well, because the YouTube, like this is helping, you know, there's, there's, you know, we had someone sign up to become a supporting member that mentioned something about the most recent YouTube video. And like people just buy stuff and say like, I've been consuming a lot of content. Like, yep. Right. I need to buy some stuff now. And right, right. So there's, there's value there. It's hard to mark the value specifically, but do talk about too at this point especially early on each week each video is an experiment for us as much as it is

anything it's like what does this do and why do we think it did you know and then when it's done it's like why is it that way and it's just like laying that block in the foundation because we know some of these yes yes can can take time and they can grow bigger over time too so it is it is a long game that's that's for sure and if there's one thing we know about massonomics it's playing the long game right that if there's anything that we're good at at massonomics it is playing the long game honestly uh in addition to that you know instagram we don't change there you know always always posting that we have have it. Seems like it's just always the way it is. Like it goes up and down.

Like there's ebbs and flows of being able to see traction or not see traction over any social media. But at this snapshot in time, Instagram certainly feels like garbage, doesn't it? Yeah. And then random things. There was a picture of, we're kind of recording this at a funny time so if you listen to this this actually was posted a while back but um just of like a rusty dumbbell sitting in a solution i'm like

why did that get such a significant amount of engagement uh actually i was talking with grant from the strength co following day then he posted just an image and it got great engagement for him and a huge number of likes and comments and stuff like that and he messaged me back and he goes oh are we back to being able to post a picture on instagram and uh like it work and i'm like i don't know maybe that and i'm like that would be awesome. I would love if, if that's something you could still use again. Yeah.

That it doesn't have to be a tick tock. 1.1. Right. Right. Yeah. So are you talking about his, his lunch one? Is that the breakfast?

Oh, okay. I was just looking here. Yeah. And that's what his, that's what his comment to me is like, because he had noticed he because he had noticed the day before that are that image that i was talking about how well it had done and then he tried that and had success and that was his you

know it's kind of a joking comment for like oh can we actually do that again wow well you know what i'm just realizing right now like i i make a point of like trying to like everything from the strength code when I see it. Yeah. And I feel like, Oh, I'm very in tune with what's going on with the strength code. And I look through here and I haven't seen so many of these,

like I was 10 most recent posts. I've only seen like three or four of them. Right. It's like, how am I just not like, this is someone, a page that I follow. I occasionally leave comments. I try to like every post i can and instagram still just does not show me the post

it's nuts so that's i mean that's the uphill battle that you know you face as a a brand on could be any social media give it you know depending on the time period wow yeah so instagram's kind of whatever right now it has definitely has its ups and downs but right now it's just like this year especially though it felt this feel has felt like instagram has been a bit of a lull and yeah i mean you look though like you look at tons of brands tons of companies and it doesn't seem like anyone gets particularly good engagement does it no i mean there's spots here and there you know there's but uh i i think that seems to generally be true yeah then outside of that you know we could break things down into uh podcast and merchandise

would be our you know really our big two parts of massonomics like what massonomics even is and even talking about the podcast first maybe overall like talking about say something like youtube being uh we're looking at that as i don't know what we're getting out of but it's an up-and-coming thing and we're having fun with it it's fun it's good instagram social media i don't know kind of not going great it is what it is like i would give that like a c minus or something like that. Yeah. If you had to sign it. Yeah. Right. The podcast, if I was to give that a leather letter grade, even though we've been doing this for seven and a half years, whatever it is now, I think in 2023, the podcast is great is going very good. It feels like a number of ways.

It feels like we have some really positive momentum going like you said in different ways like we have for the first time ever now we have the video podcast going with the guest and every one of them has been great so far the the the audio quality is always amazing especially compared to the phone i forget how good like the best phone calls are probably comparable to like the worst zoom calls and that's maybe being generous still right like this zoom always sounds so much better than some some people's phone calls are really bad too you know depending on what headset they had on and what delay was going so the headsets are always worse i think they're always they're always a problem on the phone always a problem yes and so on zoom audio quality is great there and the video i think has been what the last three weeks now maybe a month i think it's

been a really cool new addition for the show especially for people on youtube and that that does play back into the youtube part again yeah it yeah and yeah that's that's true yeah yeah these things none of these things even really live in a vacuum, actually. It's all interconnected to some degree, just like you don't say the podcast without looking at YouTube. I wanted to see how many episodes have we done in video now because I think it's been 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I think the last six weeks now. Okay, that's gone fast.

Yeah. Time flies when you're having fun on the mass dynamics podcast it does also then like to go along with it a good marker for us is like supporting members you know we have the supporting member program and it's as popular as ever you know it. It's growing. We always wonder. I don't know, actually, if we started. You know what? The day we started the supporting member program, if we would have said at its best there would be 50 people, we'd probably have been like, 50?

That's amazing. 50 people? Willing to give us a little bit of money every month? And we've blown that number out of the water. I would have never guessed the number of people we have in there is actually, could be possible. I just did not think that could happen. And the Discord, it is.

It's a vibrant, amazing community of people always posting in there. There's so much conversation going on. It doesn't matter if you want to pop in there, like some people, every hour of every day, or if you want to pop over there like some people every hour of every day or if you want to pop over in there at the end of the day or once a week I mean there's always going to be something that will make you laugh or at least something that is noteworthy and interesting that someone's talking about or going on in their life or some observation they had and uh yeah it's just

a lot of fun seeing what's happening in there some people some of the people just use it as a resource almost where it's just like they have a seeing what's happening in there. Some of the people just use it as a resource almost where it's just like they have a question every once in a while and they just pop in there to get feedback from peers, obviously. And a big reason part of this success is just because of the supporting members that we have themselves and they kind of like keep the torch lit all the time even if we're not doing something there. They're running the show and just like uh

making it's just fun for everyone else because of the activity and involvement that everyone all everyone has but also we try to do you know the the joke is yeah you become a supporting member and you don't what do you get like uh we give you nothing you know it's just like you know and that's kind of the the running joke behind it But we actually are kind of working on stuff all the time of what we can like do for the supporting members, you know, to make the relationship a two way street so that it is kind of like so that there's value there. So that that hopefully at the end of the day, you know, someone might make the comment, well, why wasn't I paying that before? That's like that's a no brainer. That's so worth it you know why wouldn't i do that so i think that part of that is working in that reason though too just because we are always actively trying to figure out how we can provide value in return for the people doing it for sure yes uh so the podcast is

like an a plus almost to me it's an a maybe's an a, maybe it's, maybe it's an a or an a minus. I don't know. Yeah. I'd say an a, I mean, a plus would be if we had some sudden viral growth, I guess. Right. Right. I don't know if that could honestly even happen in podcasts. I don't know. You know, numbers are good. Yeah. Right. Numbers are good. And we're continuing to, you know, I, I picture it continuing to grow and, uh, get bigger and we're going to continue to have sponsors and all that. So, um, you know, we even talk, we're not going to get into, we're not going to get into every last dollar and cent of everything just because it doesn't make sense for us to like give away every piece of the puzzle. Our CPA couldn't make it tonight. So, right.

But, you know, the podcast makes money money now like there's no secret to that like if you look behind the number of even just the supporting members and if you assume you understand we have a few few paying sponsors every month um we make some money now like the podcast is a real money maker for us and it's become a really big deal well especially when you look at uh the podcast industry versus the apparel industry there's uh your expenses are significantly lower when it comes to podcasting right you know we have this equipment and like when we revamped to studio 6.9 we obviously incurred quite a few more expenses there for a while. And, uh, you know,

there's hosting and stuff like that and just all the technology and equipment, but a lot of that stuff, it's once you get it, it's your overhead is just so it gets a spread out over so long. It just turns into almost nothing, you know? Right.

Right. Uh, and that's kind of like when we compare it to the merchandise, that's, that is the sweet part of the podcast is that income from the podcast, if you look at dollar to dollar, means so much more money in our pocket, honestly. When we get any dollar of income from the podcast, that's a lot more money in our pocket than the end of the day

compared to the dollar that we make selling a t-shirt. mean yeah just the dollar we grossly bring in so the number of the amount of time involved let's just say a hundred dollars made off of off of a hundred dollars in podcast revenue versus a hundred dollars in in merchandise revenue the amount of overhead expenses, work, everything that goes into it is so drastically different. Like, don't get us wrong. Like the podcast is work, you know, like we're, we, we started this call tonight at a seven 30. And as of right now, it's 11 0 5 PM. And this is probably going to go for another 45 minutes almost. So it's like midnight on a Tuesday. And so we have three four five hours almost into the podcast right there each and then yep each so 10 hours

collectively and then i'll go back and edit these i technically we did two episodes tonight so thumbnails yep so we'll edit them do thumbnails and i'll upload you know i'll uh tanner has to upload his stuff i gotta grab those like i mean yeah so tonight it is a little different because we're recording two different episodes. But lately, I mean, we have been recording episodes that are running close to two and a half hours long. And, you know, in the very best scenario, I can make editing take a little over an hour. And a lot of times it can take longer than that, just depending on how hard it is to track down thumbnail images for people. And just if we're going to have any issues with downloading and files and all you never know sometimes you just something fights in the system so it is work for sure there's no doubt about that but

there is a different level than oh yeah we bought okay we designed this artwork we sent it off the printer hopefully gets it printed and set up correctly and then they hopefully get the right t-shirts and then they hopefully get them done on time. And then they ship, they pay to ship those back to us. Then we get them. We take pictures of all of them. We count them all in inventory. We make an email campaign for it.

We set up all the images on the thing. We send the email campaign. We take the orders in. We box all the orders, fulfill the orders, mark them as fulfilled, send them through the post office, get them back to the person write the thank you notes like if there's a lot of work that goes into an apparel business that uh yeah that you don't think of when you think get t-shirt sell t-shirt profit it's like there's so many steps in between there there is um there's so many and it just it's easy to underestimate it. I think too, of like what goes

into it. And it's not a, not complaining. Like I, I love every time we sell a t-shirt. Oh, I do too. Yeah. And I still like, I, I still, well, and okay, this goes back to a conversation we're having just the other day. I still do fundamentally think of massonomics as, you know, if someone says, well, what is that? I still say it's like an apparel merchandise company. Like that's right. I usually just say an apparel company that people get that quicker, but we were just having the conversation the other day that massonomics is starting to feel more and more where originally it was. Yeah.

It's an apparel company and we happen to do like a podcast. It's starting to feel more and more like it's a podcast company that happens to sell some merchandise that supports the podcast. It's, you know, and the numbers, it's the podcast. It's, you know, and the numbers, it's becoming more of an even, you know,

the numbers aren't, they're not near. I mean, the, the merchandise is still a significantly larger chunk than the podcast, but it does just starting to feel like the importance of the podcast is, you know, pulling the scales,

you know, evening out a little more, especially when you consider how valuable the dollar is, you know evening out a little more especially when you consider how valuable the dollar is you know any dollar that we bring in related to the podcast because of the smaller overhead you know the smaller some in some ways time and but in also is just like the overhead cost like it starts to even it out more yeah uh should do a little, I want to do a little supporting our supporting. Okay. Okay.

Just to, we'll break this up a little bit and then we, maybe we get in more of the merchandise. Yes. Yes. Okay. So supporting our sporting members. First of all,

I'd say going back to what we were just talking about, just big shout out to all of our supporting members this week. I want to highlight each and every one of you this week because you guys are a big part of what's making the podcast possible for us to continue to keep it rolling like this. Anyone that's not signed up, we'd love to have you sign up part of, you know,

we're just this whole conversation is about that sort of thing. What you get out of it, you know, you get to listen along, listen along live in the discord and chat with all the other people in this active community that's been built. And there's a discount code for buy some of this merchandise, do that sort of thing. And then also there's this segment every week where we give back to some of the supporting

members. And then there's free surprise gifts that we send out. This is a weird recording time. As far as I know, as of the time of this coming out, we haven't sent that yet. But it's probably very, have very very close right right it's going to be getting very close so what i would say is if you're hearing this and it's close to us bringing it out and you're interested in getting the free surprise gift make sure to sign up now right now there's going to be a line in the sand and that line, if you wait at all, very close to you. Yeah. If you wait at all,

you will not make it into this free gift. I mean, still sign up, but now would be the best time to get signed up if you haven't already. So shout out to everyone that's been supporting us. Also shout out to big Jeff. I believe big Jeff was the guest on the unpaid and underrated podcast. So shout out to everyone that's been working on the Unpaid and Underrated podcast.

So shout out to everyone that's been working on the Unpaid and Underrated podcast, a shoot-off of the Massonomics podcast in a way. Part of the extended Massonomics universe. Exactly. Yes, exactly. So thank you to all of our supporting members. Oh, and as long as we're thanking people, who else would I like to thank this week? Let's keep the thank you train rolling.

Yeah, let's thank them all. We brought them up here. Big Grant at the Strength Co. Thank you to the Strength Co. for making just kick-ass, made-in-America, iron, slim but rugged and easy to grip and go-to plates over at the strength co they also have their collars we decided those aren't clips they're barbell collars that go on your barbell collars

you can check out their collars at the strength co and um also you check out the strength co here in uh i don't know not much over a month then then in western northeast South Dakota. They're a sponsor and a vendor at the Lift Hard Live Easy Classic. We call that a double threat. A double whammy. They're going to have some limited edition Lift Hard Live Easy merch of themselves that people can get their hands on at the meet. So thank you, The Strength Co. And this episode is also brought to you by Texas Power

Bars. By now, you're probably familiar with the legendary story of the Texas Power Bars, at least if you've heard this podcast before. But did you know that Texas Power Bars is growing their legacy even more? And that is with the addition of the new 29 millimeter texas power bar they said they said it couldn't be done but buddy caps said wait a minute i'm buddy caps my timeline isn't finished being written yeah i'm gonna change the game forever and he did and he came up with the 29 millimeter texas power bar you can order yours today uh on the website it looks like it's um uh well right from the horse's mouth here their strongest bar to date they increase shaft diameter 29 millimeters more loadable sleeve length and um an aggressive knurling this bar sure to live up to the hype

you can get yours today in bare steel black zinc for the bare steel or black zinc for the shaft. And you can do a chrome or bare steel sleeve. It looks like it starts at about $315. So if you are a fan of Masonomics and a fan of Texas power bars, I think this is something you want to take advantage of over at Texas power bars dot com. There's one thing I like. It's a thicker shaft. Cannot go wrong.

That's what I've always said. That's been my mantra through life. Yep, I remember that. It's the first thing you ever said when you met me. I was like, kind of a weird thing to lead with, but you're not wrong. I'm interested. You make a good point.

Okay, so the merchandise. you make a good point. Okay. So the merchandise, um, I mean, a big change of this. I don't know where to start it. The merchandise is a, is a,

is a, is a large beast for massonomics that, uh, and, uh, uh, uh, definite bright note,

uh, this year has been in the introduction of the drink spot or light. Yeah. It has been an awesome new product for us. Yeah. We, we for us yeah we never knew yeah shining star like that was something like there was when our bread and butter is putting designs on t-shirts and selling those things you know that's right that's what we've done a lot of we've done more of that than anything so when you're talking about you know really releasing a new product something that doesn't exist there's just a ton of just back and forth hoops you got to jump through like sourcing products figuring out pricing

there's just there's so much you got to do versus getting a t-shirt made and we i mean we're hopeful that the drink spotter light's going to go good. And I think as of right now, it's beating our expectations for what we had for it. Yeah, it's doing really well. So we hope to keep that train rolling. And on that matter, if you don't have a Drink Spotter Lite yet, you need a Drink Spotter Lite. And, you know, to probably talk about, to fit in with what we're going to talk more about merchandise, but we're able to sell that at a pretty good price. I think the drinks,

$33. Yeah. And for what it is, that is a good deal. Honestly, heavy duty. It's made in America. Like,

yeah, there's other beverage holders out there and they're made of plastic. They're made in China and they're like 15 bucks. So, and like the magnet that we have on this, like nobody has ever grabbed this and stuck it to something and not gone holy crap i didn't realize how strong that magnet was like that is everyone's reaction anytime they stick it to something they go whoa almost took my finger

off you know yeah and i just think the whole just the whole fit finish just qualities of the product i think is really impressive yeah shipped to you for like $37, $38 or whatever it is, is a good, this is a good buy. Honestly, you know, we joke around about almost everything, but in contrast to what we've experienced with some of the other stuff, this pricing, it's just that we're able to sell this at a price that we can still make money and it's just a great deal i think to the end consumer that's good what we've experienced more on some of the our textiles and uh other merchandise you know our t-shirts shorts

hats that sort of thing that we sell is really over the last like two or three years with everything going on oh man it's just the pricing our cost our cost even just continues like it still is never even leveled honestly i don't think it just it was shortly after covet happened you you know, probably what, late 2020, early 2021, where prices were just going insane. Like, I mean, things were jumping like anywhere between 25 and 50 plus percent on things. Yeah. And these are things that we've been ordering for years. And now all of a sudden, I mean, yeah, just whatever you can think of, like to get a 50%

increase on something that a month over the course of even a month or two was happening. And some of it, you're like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. Like you have a talk with your supplier and then all of a sudden, Oh yeah, no, we can bring that back down. And that is that whole thing of, yeah, everyone's just riding this wave of everyone's doing it um so some of it there is some dishonesty or just people shooting from the hip a little too much right uh but but we have seen like prices have gone up consistently across the board i mean we we were joking you know not joking we were laughing about the fact that when we first started massonomics but probably before like the website was really even up when you tell Tanner, you were essentially selling t-shirts out of, you know,

your trunk, the trunk of my car. I mean, what we're selling them for like $18 ish, maybe. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

I think so. And at that time it's hilarious because our, I mean, our volume was so low. Our numbers were non-existent. I think we were buying t-shirts like $12. So it's like, you weren't even making money.

Like that's people might be like, Oh, that's $6. Like, no, that's not a business. Like that is not, by the time you put any amount of effort in work into this, you weren't even making money like that's people might be like, oh, that's six dollars. Like, no, that's not a business like that is not by the time you put any amount of effort in work into this. You don't spend that much money to make five or six dollars a unit. Like that's not how this works.

Right. And that you'll see that all the time with and like it's what we did. You'll see it all the time with someone that's very new into doing something like this. You'll be like, wow, their prices are really low. And it's like, well, that's very new into doing something like this you'll be like wow their prices are really low and it's like well it's like the michael scott there's he's like the only thing keeping us in business our price is our prices and you know the accountant's like no the thing that's putting you out of business is your prices and that's like what people at a really small scale do is like yeah we we kind of know we're not making any money on this. We're just going to,

we'll sell them for so low. It's like, yeah, we get somebody to buy it. Like that's a win, you know? And like, we're way past the point of being able to do that.

We have to sell things at a price point that we make some money. Yeah. Like we can't make it worth it. Otherwise it's like, this is way too much freaking work for nothing. Yeah. This business wouldn't exist to not make any money. You know,

it's not a charity. Like we're not dumping all this time and effort into it to lose money that wouldn't make any sense right uh but that that has been the biggest it it is i mean this is real talk to get into to start an apparel company right now i think is so hard even even from i mean especially since like 2019, if someone wanted to start a t-shirt company in 2019, I'd be like, Oh yeah, go for it. You know, try it like whatever. Now I just say, I mean, if you're going to put that amount of time and effort into it, you're better off with a hundred different businesses before peril for sure. Like no, like, I mean, we've jokedoked we've joked a long time that if

we were in i don't know real estate or some other business we've honestly the amount of time and effort and just thinking and creativity put into this we'd probably be millionaires by now if we did almost and we really made a mistake at a very to a certain extent yes like a real talk like i i do genuinely feel like with our skill set um we would probably be millionaires if we were in almost any other business we would have applied it to something a little bit yeah i mean we probably wouldn't have had as much fun we'd probably have more money probably wouldn't have had as much fun it probably would have been a it'd be a lot less fun it would have been it would have been way more that would have been the actual grind i mean we would have just been

grinding it out um but i'm pretty certain if we would have applied this same amount of work, skill and effort into almost anything else. Research. I do think we could have been. Industry. Benchmarking. I think we could have made a lot of money in something. It's funny to think about. But yeah, I mean, if yeah, in 2019, if someone said, I'm going to start a t-shirt company, it's like, yeah, go for it. Yeah. Yeah. Have fun, whatever. It's not. But now it's really really really hard to make money in apparel like merchant like we we talked about even i think what in 2019 so four years ago we're selling t-shirts for like 23 ish yeah i mean i they were definitely there's one i can remember on the website when they were like 2199 you know

i mean this is probably 2017. Yeah, but even more recently, like I think we were right around that $23, $24 mark. Oh yeah, they were $25, not too long ago either. Yeah, we were around like $23, $24 for a long time. As of now, are we at $29.99? $29.99, yeah. So we've increased it $6. We're not making any more money than we made when we were at $24. A lot of times we're actually making less money.

Yeah, like we happen to increase them accordingly. Yes. And like some people might be saying, well, your supplies went up too much. You're paying too much. We've actually talked to other people in our industry and they think like, damn, you paid that price? Like you're getting a smoking deal on your t-shirts.

And I do think, I think our vendor for our t-shirts is hooking us up pretty good, especially after some of the prices we've heard that some other people in our space are paying i think our deal is pretty hot on on apparel and i actually know from working in the apparel industry that even some of the places i worked with could never even touch these prices like they're they are good but right uh it's it's just the the margins are insane like it's i mean really if we wanted to be at the same margin level we used used to be we'd almost have to be selling like 34 t-shirts and yeah they're look around

there's if if it's an influencer involved and when i say that i mean some of their sound 40 their name has you know like close to 100 000 followers if not more yeah they sell they sell 36 to 45 t-shirts like all day they do yeah um and that's then their margin yeah i mean and then they have the margins and each one of those is a great product that they sell and we talk about t-shirts t-shirts are like our best margin item you know like it only gets worse when you go away from the t-shirt and you go towards basically anything else we sell there's been there's been a lot actually a fair number of products in the last six months we've wanted to do, and we're all excited for it. And by the time we get the pricing worked out and the quantity we'd have to buy it at, we're like, Oh, okay.

So if, if we wanted to sell this at the price we wanted to, we'd make $3 a unit. It's like, Nope, not worth it. Oh yeah. If this was all said and done, um, by the time you figure your time's worth anything, all the work, it's like you basically lost hundreds and hundreds of dollars by the time. And that's if you sold every single unit too. Yeah. Pick whatever, say it's a widget or whatever you want. We think a fair reasonable price for this would be if we sold it to the final customer for $30. That'd be a fair price for them that, uh, you know, we're not gouging them. It doesn't, we don't look like jackasses selling. Like I don't want to sell something and be like, what are these dipshits doing? Charging $50 more than what this

product is worth. Like you douches, you know, like I don't like that. These guys are gouging us like way too hard here. Right. So we think a $30 is the mark and we're like well maybe 35 if we could you know really justify it if it's well done and you know and then and then we get the numbers and they're like if we don't sell this for 45 at bare minimum like at bare minimum we're got we're not gonna make we have no chance of making any money that's i mean the classic example of this well we can't do it where there's no we're's I mean the classic example of this. Well, we can't do it where there's no, we're not doing that. The classic example of this is singlets.

We've wanted to do custom singlets forever and we wanted to do a little more than just a black singlet with just like just massonomics on it. There's nothing wrong with that, but we had bigger ideas. Like we, I mean, to me, that's some of the fun of massonomics is the creativity of like what crazy

stuff can we come up with? And then what can we do to make it happen? And I mean, to me, that's some of the fun of massonomics is the creativity of like, what crazy stuff can we come up with? And then what can we do to make it happen? And I mean, we talked to multiple vendors that our cost on singlets was going to be a hundred dollars or more. That's our cost. And we're not going to turn around, buy a singlet by spend, you know, buy 50 singlets. Let's say for example, spend five grand on singlets to turn them around and some of you for one 20, like, you know, okay. So if we sell all of these singlets, we'll make like a thousand dollars. Like that's not worth it for us to take on five grand of expense to maybe make a thousand. Like

that's a terrible investment. And so that was part of the problem is like some of these things are just so hard to source at a level that, cause we're trying to be affordable. Like we're not trying to be the most expensive, most premium option for everything. Like we want to level that, because we're trying to be affordable. Like we're not trying to be the most expensive, most premium option for everything. Like we want to be that, hey, that's cool. That's funny. I can drop some money on that. I think I'm getting a good quality product and I feel like it was at a pretty fair price too.

Like that's what we're trying to do with all this stuff. Right. Yeah, it is. It is like you said in 2019. And to tie that back to like, you know, you said in 2019, maybe you could have made to like, you know, you said in 2019, maybe you could have made a go at this easier. You could justify it better.

Another factor of that is what we talked about, like social media, like Instagram. If you look at Instagram specifically in 2019, you could have built something around it. Now it'd be really hard to get that up off the ground and running. It is. You have to really have that piece of magic. You can't it's almost impossible to just say oh yeah you just make an account and you post regularly and like you'll just organically gain followers over time like

that's you have to have something that like the algorithm likes you can't just yeah it's town's dumb but you almost just can't just be you like you have to be you have to be a version of you that the algorithm likes is like where it's at now which you could i really do feel like for a long time on instagram you could just be you and you would get rewarded for that because we're like oh cool like this guy's into this and this and likes this like that can still happen but it's incredibly rare and i do i do want to pump the brakes for a second and we probably sound like we're just complaining i know i was i was i wanted to say the same yeah i don't want this to sound like a negative all negative thing because on the flip side of it like that

is the fun part of it is is like all right the game's changing like that's what it's it is you said a game it is like a game for both of us i think like the whole thing is kind of a game of like what what do we do and i mean we're complaining the same way that like oh okay well now that i benched 315 like damn what i was doing before it doesn't really work to get me to 350 like it does constantly change all the time and that is the fun in it like the drink spotter light wouldn't have came out if it was just like oh t-shirts are just selling so good like we wouldn't have even bothered to think about the drinks it's when and then we wouldn't have messed with singlets and this other stuff but it's like okay things start to feel like more of a challenge. Yeah. It's like,

oh, okay. What other, what other levers can we pull? Whatever things can we come up with that, that might get excited. I mean, maybe for all we know,

maybe the mass dynamics meet, which we've been existed. If we were just, you know, if we were just so focused, if t-shirts were selling so insanely good, we probably wouldn't have even been looking in some different avenues. So t-shirts still do sell good.

They still are our number one seller they are the bread and butter but just the game is changing that game has gotten harder than it used to be and i agree it's not a complaining thing this is just like well and yeah we're letting you into like a real conversation we're trying to give you a more candid candid conversation of like things that we actually talk about like to how this goes it's not just like oh damn yeah like the world keeps getting more efficient. Cheap T-shirts are just easier to come by all the time. And, you know, we are the ones that we're buying inventory

up front and fulfilling them. Like you start looking at drop shipping, like running through a print on demand. It's like, oh, yeah, have fun making $4 a T-shirt on something that's like, like, you basically don't make money there. Like it's not a that's not a business at that point no yeah yeah it's uh it's a challenge but i mean it is fun too it is a game like it is a it is a game as much of anything is a game but it's just sometimes you it's you're all

that what you said is true though it's like oh it's probably led us to doing more on youtube so we're creating more content that way. It's led us to putting more into the podcast. And that's part of why now we are able to say the podcast is in the place that it's in. Because if Instagram was just going nuts, I mean, if you're gaining thousands or tens of thousands of followers every few months, you're like, why do we need to put a bunch of effort into a difference? But that's not the case. So, OK, we know what it takes to at least keep doing what we're doing on Instagram.

But yeah, let's look at YouTube. What, like what, what can we do that may, we'll maybe move the needle on YouTube a little more. So that's where you start looking at more ways to change and get better in this whole thing.

Yeah. Yeah. Which I think we're doing. I do. It does feel like it. We're certainly giving it a try. Like you can't, I mean,

as much as two guys can that have multiple kids, a family and action and other real time jobs. Like, damn dude, there's some days where, well, we're at 1130 PM, uh,

according to our second episode. And, uh, oh man, it's, it's tough. Like right now, I mean,

we've talked about this even before, like how many top level power lifters have like families? Like that's not a thing, right? It's such a small group. There's no doubt some people you people, someone listening right now is like, well, what about this person and that person? And like, yeah, there's exceptions to, you know, there's always a, there's always people out there, but a lot of the times, no, because it's not what goes into that isn't i know the very doable like what goes into having a successful business or being successful at power lifting or any of these things is a massive time commitment and a lot of those

things aren't compatible with having a family and being um uh there for your family too so it's it's hard right now you know we're really there's a lot of days where i'm just like damn i couldn't split my time anymore this isn't a part-time job like this is like well it's part-time in the way that it's not like it's not a thing that you do from like but you just think about it all the time you know right i mean it's a it's a full-time commitment and like even if you really add up the hours the hours are closer to a full-time job than they's a full-time commitment. And even if you really add up the hours, the hours are closer to a full-time job than they are a part-time job. It's just that they're not done during...

It's not always 8 to 5 of Monday through Friday. And fulfilled in a different way, too. If it fulfilled you just like your regular job, it'd be like, why do I need more of that? Oh, shit. If that's what regular job, I'd be like, why do I need more of that? Oh, shit. If that's what this was, I'd be like, this wouldn't have made it one year, let alone seven. You know, there's no way.

Yeah. But it is because I don't think of it that way. But like, if you were to put it on paper, like today's a really funny example of it. It's like when they start working at eight and then at noon get away from the computer and go to the gym for like an hour get done there come home eat take the dog around the block sit down at the computer at five go get the kids from daycare you know with my wife we went and go pick up the kids from daycare at five. So by the time we get through the traffic, get back, it's like 5.40-ish.

You make dinner, you clean up, give the kids baths, put them down for bed. And then it's like 7.45 and you come here. So it's like, oh yeah, you got like, what? Two and a half-ish hours of like that, not really that like time where you're working on something that you're there for your family. And then all of a sudden it's like 7.45 and we we're at 1130 right now. And then it's like,

yeah, you're doing massonomic stuff. And it is, it is, this is not the norm for a day, but man, you do put in the time. There's no doubt about that. Yeah. Yeah. And then if anything, you know, we're on a certain schedule, especially with, with uh especially with the podcast and even to some extent uh youtube or social media and stuff but like when stuff goes wrong you know stuff doesn't work like it's supposed to then it's like all of a sudden something that is normally just an hour a week you're like oh man i gotta figure out how to like this isn't working like we just need to work or like we said like you think you have an idea of what that price is going to be and that price does not come back in your ballpark. And it's like, all right, time to go back into research. Let's start looking for more prices or how, what can we change to make this cheaper? And that was a conversation we were having just before we started here. We got a price back on something that was literally double what we had anticipated. Like, well, that's not going to be an option. So are we scrapping it? Are we changing it? Are we looking for a different vendor? And so now does, is that going to be a 30 minute thing? Is that going to be an option so are we scrapping it are we changing it are we looking for a different vendor and so now does is that going to be a 30 minute thing is that going to be a two hour thing don't really know yet we'll see how we'll see how far this goes yeah or even we even think we

we're we think we're to the finish line on something and then we get the email that uh in we were wrong about inventory on this uh actually you know that thing that you wanted that and you you know that size that's the most popular one that you sell yeah we actually can't get that size and it's like okay now what are we doing do we buy this thing and not have any of the most popular size available at all ever that's not a probably a good plan like do we have to scrap this all together do we find the alternative i like the one option we got one today that i kind of i thought had disappeared and this is the first time we've seen this one in a while it's like hey you know those black t-shirts

you like yeah oh i'm like how is that out in you know that most common black t-shirt for the most popular brand for blank the most popular color the most yeah they don't have any in america right now right i hadn't seen that one for a while actually i thought we were past those days forever that a black t-shirt could ever be out of stock but it did happen today so then you deal with that part of things too yeah which is like it is fun i can only laugh about those because it's just comical but right and And you do the stuff long enough and you just know like, hey, here's our option B. Option B is fine for that. Like, there we go.

We're done with that one. But that's the advantage of doing anything long enough is you start to know like when the things try to derail. What your plan B's are and your plan C's are. Right. So that's sort of the state of the Monomics union isn't it yeah i guess the takeaway is things are still going good it's still right great year for massonomics we're having a ton of fun and just now after we've done this now in one way or another for like what

seven years or whatever it is you start to have some perspective on things and how they used to be and how they are changing and i mean you really we have really witnessed quite a few changes in our industry but uh we're rolling with the punches and a side effect of that is we hopefully do cool new stuff along the way absolutely uh the other thing as long as we're talking about massonomic stuff i've had a few people message me about this last week's last few weeks so i wanted to get it out on the podcast you know i had done a youtube video explaining how i was going to go to scotland and do the dinny stone lifts and i've been training for that and did have a roadblock

on that we are not going to scotland anymore because we've already announced that we're having another baby. And towards the midst, the heart of the pregnancy, my wife wasn't really super fond on being overseas for 10 days. Having a child in Scotland. Right, right. And I'm like, yeah, that's actually a good point. It actually brought up a good point. You know, we were talking about what is the health care situation exactly? Like, this is a different country.

If we're there and something happens, what – we're kind of actually looking into what our – I think it's on the house, right? Well, yeah. Like, in a different country. Give us some of that good European health care, you know, sign us up for that. I don't really know. You know, we looked into it, but that was just one of the issues, but also just like, do I want to be that far away from home?

It's like, okay, my baby was born in Scotland, so now they're a Scotland citizen. That's how that works, right? Try to get this baby a green card in America. So we did have to, I would say, post. Really good icebreaker to say am i a scottish child that takes some explaining uh so we canceled that trip i'd say postponed but it's not going to be postponed short term it's probably realistically we've talked about it's probably going to be two years from now because we have this baby and as you know newborn babies apparently acquire require a bit of uh attention for a little while and

so we'll probably wait again until uh our newest kid is two somewhere in that area and fend for themselves yeah we can leave them all we have enough of them together like they have to be able to take care of each other like form form your own little, little groups here. Child army. Elect a Lord of the flies. Elect a leader. Lord of the flies. Maybe I should read that book.

That's a quick, easy read. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Certainly read part of it or cliff notes or something, but that would be, that's a good,

that's a good book segment there. Yeah. I've read, I've read that book twice. Okay. Would you recommend it then? I, yeah, I thought it was good. You know, I've read that book twice. Okay. Would you recommend it then? Yeah, I thought it was good. I read it the first time on my own, and then we read it in high school again.

It's a quick read. I think it's like 90 pages or something. Okay. All right, good. I probably will, actually. So we're not going to Scotland. So I actually stopped training for the Dinnystones, although I did get to the number,

and I was able to do fairly long holds of the dinny stone weight and i feel good the reason i stopped doing the training because a we're not going and then b the training is hard on the body a little bit doing that we you know i was doing it weekly and a the hands my hands were strengthening from it, but also just like getting beat from it too. And then, you know, the contortion of the body is a little hard on my body doing it for a long period of time, like consistently. It's almost like in the hips and the knees, just like the position you get in. You know, acutely it's not that big of a deal, but to me, I noticed more so long-term the way you need to do that position. Yeah. And I don't even know, it was just like starting to feel like, just like, Oh wow. That just is not getting increasingly more uncomfortable. But so what I'll do is go back to that when I have a reason to go back to it,

which would be, you know, lifting the real stones, or if maybe someday I get the chance to do it at the Arnold, there you go, which would be, you know, we're there every year. And if they have them, if I,

if I looked into seeing what it would take for me to get that chance, I would do it for that. Yeah. That'd be cool. But, but I, the goal is still, I mean,

we will still go to Scotland and I will still go for the stones when I'm there, as long as I'm physically able, even remotely. So I just probably have to wait a couple more years on that. And then instead, which this is relevant, we do have a few crew members there. We're headed to Washington, D.C. later this month. Actually, I'm probably there when this podcast comes out.

Oh, really? You're going that soon? Yeah, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Like when? podcast. Oh, really? You're going that soon? Yeah, I think yeah. Like when? Like the next weekend. Like the 16th, 17th? I'll be gone like the 17th through the 21st. Oh, damn.

So I'll have to record an episode of the podcast after I get back from that. Yeah. That'll be fine. I'll be here like Thursday and stuff. So we'll have to record an episode of the podcast like after I get back from that. Yeah. Yes. Okay. But that'll be fine. I'll be here like Thursday and stuff. So we'll have to do one then.

But yeah, I think we're gone from the 17th to the 21st. So maybe if there's any crew that are in the area and want to, I'm sure we'll go out for a couple of brewskis a night or two. And if there's any crew in the area, maybe we can hit you up, see what's going on. But I've never been to washington dc it's just me my wife and our oldest uh big jack is going to and i've never been there and i'm just kind of excited to see the sights yeah you know it's uh it's almost impossible i mean it is impossible to take it all in right i got to go in high school once and uh see i never got to do that and i thought it was really cool i yeah and even then i mean i liked history and all that stuff but i like it even more now so i

think i would appreciate it and enjoy it even more that's i'm not going to be able to take it all in you know and we're going to you got to be prepared you're just going to walk so much yeah that's you have to if you're going to take it in, you have to. Right. You know? So I am really looking forward to that, too. It's not Scotland, but we wanted to do something, you know, something, an alternative, and this was kind of on my bucket list. I like the history of that stuff, and I just feel like it's a shame that I've never been to D.C. before. So, cool.

That'll be good. You'll like that. That's what I've got going on. And then the other thing is my training. My training actually has been getting better. I'm on the upswing. I, I'm started, I've been dealing with hip problems for a long time now, and it's a torn labrum and basically both of my hips and one of them that got like significantly worse and then a few other hip issues along with it but i have been figuring out some stuff now that has slowly i've made progress and back to where my deadlift actually feels good for almost a year i haven't

felt like i had done a deadlift where i could really, what I think do is a deadlift where I attack the bar. Like attack is kind of a stupid word, but I just like. No, I get what you're saying though. Yeah. Like where I'm like. You can just be aggressive and just do your thing. Right. Right.

Be aggressive. And boy, this week even especially was my best week yet. I've been doing these eights and I got to where, um, my, my sets of eights were four 70. And I just felt like I could just where I'm like, Oh yeah, this now I could remember how I could be good at deadlifts. Like I can do this and just like take a weight that, uh, has been feeling heavy lately. And I do it and I'm just like, Oh, I'm just ripping this up. I'm just feel like it's ripping it off the ground, you know, almost like the stupid, uh, all the stupid things that people say, that's kind of what it felt like. And then I'm like, oh yeah, I could be good at this again.

I remember how I could, like, I remember what it felt like for this to feel like I want it to feel. So is there something like specific you're doing to your hips that's helping or is it just. The biggest thing was just, uh, really backing off the squats significantly for a significant period of time. And then, yeah, I'm doing some corrective exercises and stuff like that. But the corrective exercises on their own over a long period of trial and error was not enough for me to be able to. I couldn't continue to try to do all the things I was doing just to add in corrective exercises and have that be enough. The corrective exercises, I feel like, while I was still trying to squat the way I was squatting before, were actually just adding to the problem.

Because it was just more volume on the problem-inflamed area. But then once I backed everything down enough for long enough and then doing the corrective exercises to try and fix some other issues, I actually am getting back to now in my squats now where it feels pretty good. The weight isn't there yet because I'm purposely slow playing it as much as possible. Do you think your strength has gone down a lot in squat right now? It's down, but it definitely is beyond where it bottomed out and now it's actually i have deadlift i know it way bottomed out and now it's actually building again squat i haven't really tested the numbers yet where i'm just uh soon i'll be at like doing three plates for like

i'm just i'm doing all squats high bar beltless And that's just one of the ways that I do it to reduce, keep the weight low. Yep. Because it's like my, you know, a hard variation or, you know, it's a lower weight variation for me. And then I've just been slow playing it so much, just slowly adding weight to that. And I'll be getting back up to where I'm doing some sets with like over three plates again here. And once I get there, if I'm doing that high to where I'm doing some sets with like over three plates again here and once I get there if I'm doing that high bar I'm doing a beltless and you know if it feels the way it's been feeling the last month or two I'm going to really be like oh I think I have an opportunity now to do this the way I want you know like like uh let juggernaut do its thing and let me like let me enjoy some progression here and so you know and like same

way where i can get to the point where i'm like oh can i do a squat and feel like i'm like i am aggressively pursuing this squat rep and not doing things weirdly in a way to try to not hurt my body you know what i mean oh yeah no 100 get it yeah I, I'm feeling good right now. I mean, feeling, I mean, it's like the YouTube video that we, that I put out a while ago. It's like, uh,

boy, sometimes when you think it just never is going to get better, then it might actually just get a little better. You know, it does just take a long lot, trial and error, trying to, you know,

different things, you know, giving it time. And, uh, and I do feel like if I can stay feeling good i'm like i can be strong it's just like a matter of feeling good long enough period of time consecutively yeah i'd really like to do another power lifting meet again and as it is now i'm like i could do that

within the next year if i can continue to make the progress i'm doing right now. Yeah. Yeah. That's, I mean, my, my training, uh, echoes yours a little bit. Um, I was, there was a while where, especially when juggernaut switched to, um, when I got switched back to my strength block, I mean, last year it all felt good. It was just like, just me really gaining momentum for the first time in so long. But then, um, starting this year, well, like that was when weights were really starting to get back to like areas of like oh man yeah like i'm getting like i'm getting like rep i'm like right in rep pr territory like i mean just never really did sets higher than five ever so i mean i was sitting real rep prs but it was probably in it was probably getting to the territory of like yeah i don't even know if at my strongest i could do some of these volume wise and um yeah i was really starting to feel that when juggernaut switched over to

strength that i was like really feeling that like invincible feel like i go in the gym like i can just move the weight and it's gonna be really hard but it's just gonna feel good like it's right right i mean i i can go i can go squat like for me when squat feels its best it's almost just like i'm doing a leg press like i don't my back moving isn't a factor at all i never consciously think one way or another like oh gotta keep my back straight gotta don't want to like that's not a thing it's like nope i just push into the ground and i stand up and like i was getting that feeling back and was feeling so good and bench i was within like 10 pounds of all time you're right to a pr yeah i mean i was like I was looking I was thinking I was just like a couple

maybe a month or two out of hitting all-time bench PRs and and what turned for me and I don't know for sure what it was but we went to the Arnold you know we were gone for like eight days and I was getting behind on juggernaut and I'm like i gotta keep up and i tried to slam three days together and i had like a really minor back tweak and i still do get minor back tweaks every so often and it's usually like now i'm at the point where i just get that like yep the only thing that heals this is time there's not an exercise or anything like and for the most part when i the when the tweaks come on i know they're there and i was just like, okay, I can just like, if I can just like coast through five days, like maybe that's, maybe I have to drop out one training session or take one pretty easy, but usually five days. And I was

almost like back every time. And so I was thinking that's where I was at and I was kind of there, but I sort of had another minor tweak and then I kind of gave it some time off and I came back and actually hit, I had an RP 10 day where I hit like almost an all time. I think it was like, ah, I'd have to look in juggernaut, but I think it was like my top set of six or a top set of eight at like three 85. I mean, that was get on squat and that was like getting up there. And my, my bench one was pretty close to 300 for a set of like was it a set of five maybe i mean these were numbers that were very very close to my all-time numbers so i was feeling like damn i'm right there and i hit that in april and uh it was i think like the i think it was like a deload and the week after that things were still a little off and then i think this definitely set me back i got conned

into doing the freaking state bowling tournament here and i had not bowled in so long and so i bowl it was like the day before the tournament i go bowl three games because i hadn't bowled in like three four months so i go bowl three games the next day i go i both i'm sorry i say i should say yeah three games the next day i for the tournament first day i bowled nine games and then and then the next day I have to wake up. I didn't know there was like that many games to be played in it. Yeah. I mean, I'm saying like, you know, like you both, you know, three games makes a, I don't

even know what the term is, but yeah. So like three games, but each game has three in it, you know? So I'm bowling nine games. And then the next day I have to wake up at seven in the morning and go bowl, be at the bowling alley by 730 to go bowl six more games. And by the time I got done with that, I'm sure it was a mixture of soreness from lifting and then bowling, uh, 18 games over the course of like two, three days. Uh, my, that like jacked my back up so bad. It was like, and also I was bowling terribly cause I hadn't bowled. So like when you're bowling good, you're're throwing strikes you're not throwing as many balls when you're bowling bad you throw even more balls

yeah and by the end of that I was I was like kind of messed up actually like that that was that felt like the lowest point I had been backwise in like two years or more and I'm like oh really like this is where we're at and so I did i had to do just like a straight up week off of nothing and then it was like training was very touch and go and for me it's never a muscle thing like i never i don't know if i've ever had like a muscle strain or anything ever in my lifting career i've been it's just always i get like these nerve pinches and for me the problem was depth like i couldn't i felt pretty comfortable like after like a week or so i felt pretty comfortable in day-to-day life but it was like if, if I even doing an air squat, once I started to get to depth,

just like the pinching and like, there was just like, it almost like I couldn't hit depth and it wasn't, it wasn't a muscle thing. It was just like, no, there's like a nerve thing stopping me. It's severe, severe pain. And so that just took a couple more weeks. So that was like towards the end of April. Then when that was like starting to go on, uh, may for the most part, just took a couple more weeks. So that was like towards the end of April then when that was like starting to go on. May, for the most part, just took things pretty easy, nothing too crazy. And now, I mean, I was in the gym today. I did five sets of five at 225 on squat, and that felt pretty good. And like benches, there's no uncomfortability in bench at all.

I can bench like normal, so I can start getting after that a little more. But now the other problem for me is just, it's sleep is getting so hard. And the way my wife's job works, she works 12 hour shifts and they either start 6am and go to 6pm or they start at noon and go to midnight and 6am to 6pm. It's whatever. That's not a big deal. Um, it's the new kind of like just an extended normal. Yeah, it's whatever. Yeah, it's fine. It's the noon to midnight that can be the real wild card because when you have two kids, you know, a nine-month-old and a three-year-old, you got to get them both to bed and then hope they're sleeping. You get them both ready for bed and you can almost guarantee that her nine-month-old, she just does not sleep very good. It's like last night's a great example. All right, I get them both to bed. It's like it's like 8 30 all right got a little alone time so you're kind of chilling and i hear some crying

and then she stops and then a half hour later here's some crying and then she stops yeah and then it's like 10 30 and i'm like yep i'm going to bed at 10 30 let's hope this goes good well i am here and crying while i go to bed it stops it only goes for like it's just kind of like a little fuss like hey i'm still here don't forget stops. It only goes for like, it's just kind of like a little fuss. Like, Hey, I'm still here. Don't forget about me. You hear it on the monitor. It's enough to annoy you for a second. Yeah.

And to not be sleeping. Yep. And then, so then it's like 1130. It's like, okay, this time it's not stopping. So we go make the bottle at 1130. And then it's like one when my wife finally gets home. So I wake up then. And then she's like, yeah, I really need you to take this tonight.

I'm so dead from because she got up early with the kids that day she's worked a 13 hour shift she's like i can't do it so okay so then she i wake up at one then then i'm up with her baby again at like three and this time she just she's just up like this doesn't happen much but this time she was just up so i'm up from like three to four fifteen and then finally go back to bed at 4 15 and then the whole family was up at like 6 15 so i'm like i don't know so you basically didn't sleep yeah so like you basically don't sleep and like that makes it so hard so damn hard to go in like that's basically not sleep you might have got like some times in there i mean the longest uninterrupted

period i had was like two hours that was was the longest period, but I had like four interruptions that were all between 10 minutes and an hour. And, uh, it makes it really, really hard to like go, I mean, I go to the gym, but it makes it really, really hard to go in and feel like you're going to kick ass that day, you know? Um, so like, especially one day you can do it, but it's the accumulation of days. And that's, that's, that is the problem is. Yeah. I mean, when you were younger, like,

Oh, I stayed up too late last night. It's like, yeah, you can, you can talk. And then you slept 20 hours the next day. Yeah.

So that has been the problem too, is just sleep has been a nightmare. So what I'm going to do because I am, did go to the gym and things are feeling much better today. I'm going to actually go on vacation next week. Finally, much needed vacation um when i get back from that i'm just going to run like an eight-week bridge block just build

some momentum like that's what i i ran bridge block last summer and it felt great and uh it is good it is a good moment it's just kind of it is it is it's kind of conditioning to a certain extent too um i don't need to be pushing my very hardest weights in the summer either. Like it's just, there's so much stuff going on in the summer where it's just, yeah, it's just hard to, um, but I'll, I'll start my bridge block next week and I'll keep numbers relatively light, go into that feeling good. And you know, I'll probably run an eight week one. So, um, I guess I'm starting at mid June, mid July, mid August, it'll turn into hypertrophy. And I mean, by then you start looking at towards the end of the year.

And if things are going good, start hopefully putting up some bigger numbers again. Yep. And I think that's very doable. Like that plan doesn't scare me at all. I think that makes a lot of sense. I think it's very doable. And I feel pretty comfortable in that. So it's just and also a few few months from now baby girl will be a little bit older and they just they do tend to sleep a little better as they get older so like

that should hopefully be going more in my favor too because that that's probably honestly been one of the biggest challenges is just sleep is really really hard to come quality sleep is hard to come by yeah the quality and like i don't know if maybe you don't have this problem but you probably do too like when they're when they're in the habit of waking up a lot even when you're asleep when you know they're gonna wake up again you're just like it's not even the same you're just like you're just even asleep you're like sleeping on your edge on even asleep like there's a lot of nights because i just know like around 10 30 like that's usually when she starts kind of whining a little bit and that's when I want to go to bed. And I just, I don't even want to go to bed at 1030 because it sucks so bad to get in that sleepy mode and then wake up to a screaming child. So it's, yeah,

it's hard. It's hard. It is a challenge. That is for sure. I mean, kids are awesome, but they do present their own unique set of challenges without a doubt. And you can't, it's not something you can discount at all like it is a very real thing they're the best and sometimes at times also the worst i mean they're definitely the best but also sometimes you're like oh you're being the worst right now you certainly are making things difficult. Not sure how else to phrase that. More politely. Yeah.

Can you stop doing that right now? Ah, that's good. Well, that's, we kind of, this is quite the episode, getting into the nuts and bolts of mass dynamics behind the scenes, and then also getting into the Tommy and Tanner sets and reps, which doesn't happen all that often. I know. i think there'll be some people that really enjoy this you know a lot of the long-time listeners always ask for more of that and here you go we just served it up on a silver platter a platter full of served our own self-serve cool beans. Cool beans.

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It's midnight, isn't it? It is the midnight oil. It is, yeah. This episode is also brought to you by Swiss Link. In 1995, Maurice Bigmo Huffman founded Swiss Link with the mission to bring authentic Swiss Army goods to the United States and into the hands of those yearning for quality gear at uncompromised prices. Now, for nearly three decades, Big Mo has been traveling far

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Enjoy a 15% discount on your next purchase at SwissLink.com by entering the code MASS at checkout. That's M-A-S-S to save 15 at swisslink.com thank you swisslink right on yeah so we really appreciate everyone that's uh over the years bought a t-shirt you know bought a pair of shorts bought a hat even though we don't want you to buy our hats yeah a lot of drink spotter listen to a podcast episode watched watched a YouTube video, read a blog article, liked a post on Instagram. Left a podcast review. Yeah, left a podcast review.

Signed up for the Massanomics powerlifting meet. Become a supporting member, for sure. Any of you, we appreciate all of you. It's what helps keep this going. Give us something to be excited about, and at, give us something to be excited about and at times give us something to complain about even, you know, when things aren't going our way. But that's like what we said.

But nah, for the most part, they go our way. Overall, life's a game and we're just a couple of players. That's right. Life's a garden. Dig it. Yes. Tommy, where do they find you at? You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D.

You can follow me at Tanner underscore Baird, but just make sure to follow Massonomics at Massonomics. See ya.